Will the Robots Take Our Jobs in 2018? Experts Weigh In
We tasked the pros with predicting how the Internet of Things and intelligent systems will evolve in the coming year.
By Rob Marvin
Is the forward march of automation a disruptive force to humanity or the ultimate job creator? We’ve wrestled with these questions over the past year as everything from smart homes to marketing efforts become more automated, connected, and intelligent.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has swelled to millions upon millions of connected devices. But connecting everything to the internet is maybe not the best idea, and necessitates important conversations about the security and interoperability of the IoT and automated systems.
We asked experts from Forrester, Google, PTC, Salesforce, and more to predict how connected devices and autonomous systems will evolve in 2018, as companies big and bigger automate our world, one process at a time.
All-In on Cloud IoT
“In 2018, most industries will go from testing the waters with cloud-based solutions for IoT to fully committing. For the last two years, we have seen a lot of [proofs of concept] and testing, and in 2018, customers will ramp up dramatically on their deployments using the cloud as their back-end infrastructure.” — Antony Passemard, Product Management Lead, Google Cloud IoT and PubSub
Political Backlash to Automation
“As people become more and more engaged with customer service automation like kiosks and robots, there will be hesitation and, in some cases, resentment over change. However, enterprises and political organizations will reexamine change-management procedures and reorient PR to navigate these waters. Automation will eventually win out, because its societal and economic benefit will outweigh political resistance.” — Chris Gardner, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research
Selective Automation
“Large-scale automation right out of the gate is neither smart nor cost-effective. In 2018, service providers will take significant steps to identify repetitive, low-skill IT tasks that could be attractive targets to convert to automated processes. In order to see the greatest ROI with the implementation of automation, businesses will need more precise data around service delivery: exact time to task or project completion; individual employee performance; and service profitability breakdowns, to name a few. Armed with this data, service providers can be selective about what and when to automate, focusing on high-cost tasks that require significant manual oversight from employees.” — Geeman Yip, CEO and founder of BitTitan
RPA Will Reshape the Workforce
“As enterprises become more acclimated with automation, RPA [robotic process automation] will take over low-value repetitive tasks and rote work. In 2018, RPA-based digital workers (i.e., bots) will replace and/or augment 311,000 office and administrative positions and 260,000 sales and related jobs to deliver enhanced customer experiences, according to Forrester. Digital transformation spending will increasingly emphasize automation, and operating models will be re-engineered around it.” — Chris Gardner, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research
Digital Twins Everywhere
“Having a window into how each product or asset in the field is operating is key to improving profitability, decision making, and ensuring security, legal, and regulatory compliance. With a digital twin, the digital definition is combined with the specific physical experience of the asset: for example, environmental conditions and performance data from an operating asset. This purpose-built digital representation allows manufacturers to analyze assets for future sales, recalls, or update opportunities. Real-world usage can be leveraged to improve future products or future iterations of the products.” — Kevin Wrenn, Divisional General Manager, PLM at PTC
An Evolution of Scale
“Contrary to popular belief, automation will not mean that we need fewer humans; we’ll just need humans to do different things. In the DevOps industry, our challenge is to build more scalable tools for those people to cope with even bigger levels of complexity and scale. Ten years ago, a typical server-to-sysadmin ratio was measured in the dozens or maybe the low hundreds for a really top-notch IT shop. Today, a lot of enterprises that have invested deeply in automation are getting to the point where they can run thousands of servers per human. In 2018, we’ll see more companies go through an evolution of scale and begin to adopt automation tools that can empower them to do that.” — Omri Gazitt, Chief Product Officer, Puppet
IoT-Driven Design
“The market is clamoring for smart, connected products: Whether it’s an Amazon Echo, a Nest Thermostat, or a Fitbit. In order to sufficiently meet the expectations of customers, manufacturers need to transform their product development process to understand and leverage data from products in the field. Noting product information on a CAD drawing is no longer going to cut it as products become more complex. Manufacturers will need to become more organized with their product development process. Having a comprehensive PLM system provides a strong foundation to taking full advantage of IoT capabilities by consolidating all product information into a single-view digital product definition.” — Kevin Wrenn, Divisional General Manager, PLM at PTC
Low-Code Orchestration
“In 2018, the enterprise will prioritize developing business apps that take advantage of IoT data in real-time. You’ll see companies empowering any employee, regardless of developer skill level, to harness IoT data and drive customer experiences that open new revenue streams — for example, admins at a manufacturing company can build automated workflows that trigger service calls whenever a factory robot issues a component failure alert. Low-code orchestration will be the catalyst for this movement, bringing to IoT the same DIY ethos that transformed enterprise app development — enabling business users and citizen developers to build proactive sales, service and marketing processes, powered by IoT data, with point-and-click ease.” — Bo Mangels, Senior Marketing Manager, Salesforce IoT
Returns on IoT Investments
“There are a lot of smart things; even a light bulb has an IP address behind it these days. Companies continued to invest in IoT initiatives in 2017, but 2018 will be the year where IoT monetization becomes critical. While it is a good start for enterprises to collect and store IoT data, what is more meaningful is understanding it, analyzing it, and leveraging the insights to improve efficiency. Think saving energy, package route delivery optimization, faster pizza deliveries. The focus on location intelligence, predictive analytics, and streaming data analysis use cases will dramatically increase to drive a return on IoT investments.” — Nima Negahban, CTO and co-founder of Kinetica
Read more: Check out what to expect from the augmented and mixed reality landscape in the year to come, according to Microsoft, PTC, and analysts from Deloitte and Forrester.
Originally published at www.pcmag.com.
